Fabrication and application of silicon-reinforced PDMS masters

A new molding process is developed in this work to generate a silicon (Si)-reinforced polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) master of a 4 in wafer size using an SU-8 mold. The reinforced PDMS master is applied to pattern a conducting polymer, poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT), which is normally dissolved by a non-polar solvent. PDMS is usually patterned by a molding process, in which PDMS is first coated on and then peeled off from a rigid mold. However, in the new molding process, the Si-reinforced PDMS master is rigid but the SU-8 mold is flexible, and the SU-8 mold is first placed on and then peeled off from the rigid PDMS master. In such a way, a reinforced PDMS master of a size as large as a 4 in wafer can be produced. Meanwhile, a new way of obtaining free-standing, large SU-8 structures is presented. PDMS swells when it gets exposed to non-polar solvents. This swelling makes PDMS not suitable for patterning materials, which are usually dissolved by non-polar solvents, e.g., P3HT. In this work, we demonstrate that, with the reinforcement of a Si plate, the swelling effect in generating this specific type of materials is much reduced, and good patterns can be produced.